Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Friday Rock Out - The Who's Baba O'Riley

We were catching up on some podcasts this week, and finally got around to listening to the recent episode of Sound Opinions where Jim Derogatis and Greg Kot listed off some of their favorite live albums.

Live albums are a bit more of a rarity these days, and generally seem to be more of a cash grab than anything else. Still, there are some classic live albums that truly capture the raw emotion and power of a band at their peak, as is the case with the Who's Live at Leeds, our personal favourite.

The clip above is actually from a concert nine years later, when the band was beginning to decline, but we love this song so much that we don't even care. It's also apparently one of the last live performances of the band with Keith Moon...so really, one of the last real live performances of the band, period.

We'll always remember Paul O'Neill in the 1996 World Series coming to bat with this song playing, invariably in an important moment in the game and the series. There was a certain frisson to be felt when an emotional moment like that was underscored with a wicked song like this. We got chills, dude. Chills.

If only someone could get Scott Rolen to swap in this song instead of the Coldplay one he's using now for his intro music. The Greatest Blue Jay of All Time deserves a song this good to be playing when he steps to the plate.

Couldn't agree more about changing Rolen's tune...the one thing EVERY Blue Jay fan I've talked to agrees with is that Rolen's intro song sucks balls...not a bad song in general, just horrendous as an intro song...